Elliot Moss talks about his work in the pandemic: “The most valuable thing I got out of this was imposing structure on the day”

For people like American musician Elliot Moss, the pandemic pushed him to find the discipline he needed. Moss lives just outside of New York in a house, so he had no space problems with forced confinement, but it was until he stuck to a routine that he began to see the positive side.

“I just stayed in my studio for months and months and months making songs. I think the most valuable skill I got out of this was being able to really put a structure on the day, every day, and stick to it.”, he said in an interview in Mexico City. “Being able to get into that really nice routine of getting up every day, making coffee and walking my dog ​​and composing, until I couldn’t think anymore and doing it again the next day”.

The result was about 100 songs that he is working on for his next album. For now, he has had the pleasure of presenting live the songs from his most recent album, “A Change in Diet”, which he had released in 2020 before the closure due to the pandemic. One of the first festivals where he resumed concerts was Pa’l Norte in Monterrey, Mexico, which was followed by Corona Capital in Mexico City.

“This is the festival my drummer has been telling me we should perform at for the last three years”, said Moss when sharing his excitement prior to Corona. “We really want to introduce ourselves”.

On his second trip to Mexico, Moss tried to give himself more time to enjoy the city, even posting videos on his YouTube channel about the experience. One of the songs on his album that relates to the Mexican environment is “July 4″ in which he evokes the fireworks that are launched on that date for the Independence Day of the United States.

“It’s probably the brightest, most vibrant and colorful song on the album and it’s something I’ve noticed while I’m here, all these different saturated colors and they work well together, in New York it’s all blue and grey, everything is very minimalist“, He said. “Here they are not afraid to make things shine and it is beautiful, they are like flowers everywhere”.

“Bodyintoshapes”, another of the songs from “A Change in Diet”, has a remix that he performs with the Colombian artist Elsa and Elmar.

Moss is a visual artist, “I can spend three days looking at typography,'” he said of his eye for color and detail. He has done the concept for several of his videos and often gets involved in technical aspects when he has to film.

“I love being the awkward guy in the film because that’s what I would do if I wasn’t a musician, lighting guy or something.“, He said.

The title of “A Change in Diet”, is for him a joke about how we are advised to change something small about ourselves to be happy and successful and he says that he laughs at the naive idea that luck is outside. That’s why he included a fortune cookie label on the cover with the phrase: “Your problem just got bigger. Think, what have you done” (Your problem just got bigger. Think, what have you done), a phrase that had been stuck on his computer monitor for years.

“It is like suggesting that there is an outside force that controls happiness in our lives.“, He said. “It’s not real, you just have to work very, very hard to be a better person.”.

Moss gained new fans when his song “Slip,” from his 2015 debut album “Highspeeds,” was used on the soundtrack for the fourth season of Netflix’s “Elite,” which premiered last year.

“It was very cool to see him there, it is always very nice when a series like this uses a song with good taste and that is coherent for the story“, He said.